Large numbers of consumers, businesses, and public entities are now using the Internet for a variety of transactions. Service providers can offer outsourcing capabilities to business customers using software-as-a-service delivery models in service marketplaces. However, challenges remain in widespread acceptance of such delivery models because customers share business critical or sensitive information and data with the service providers.
Many contracting service providers may further subcontract with subcontracting service providers on behalf of a business. Information assurance becomes more complicated in sub-contracting cases because the contracting service provider requests the subcontracting service provider to follow the agreement, which may be after the subcontracting service provider has received customer data from the service provider.